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Moderate mag. 4.9 earthquake - South China Sea, 39 km northwest of Laoag, Province of Ilocos Norte, Philippines, on Friday, Mar 17, 2023 at 9:23 pm (GMT +8) -

Moderate magnitude 4.9 earthquake at 26 km depth

17 Mar 13:33 UTC: First to report: GFZ after 10 minutes.
17 Mar 13:41: Magnitude recalculated from 4.5 to 5.0. Epicenter location corrected by 4.6 km (2.9 mi) towards NE.
17 Mar 13:43: Now using data updates from USGS

Earthquake details

Date & time	Mar 17, 2023 13:23:29 UTC -
Local time at epicenter	Friday, Mar 17, 2023 at 9:23 pm (GMT +8)
Status	Confirmed
Magnitude	4.9
Depth	26.3 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude	18.4724°N / 120.3667°E (South China Sea, Philippines)
Antipode	18.472°S / 59.633°W
Shaking intensity	Light shaking
Felt	5 reports
Primary data source	USGS (United States Geological Survey)
Nearest volcano	Ambalatungan (150 km / 93 mi)
Nearby towns and cities	22 km (14 mi) W of Davila (pop: 3,470) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 31 km (19 mi) WNW of Pasuquin (Ilocos Norte) (pop: 5,770) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 39 km (24 mi) NW of Laoag (pop: 102,100) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 41 km (26 mi) NW of San Nicolas de Ilocos (Ilocos Norte) (pop: 34,200) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 51 km (32 mi) NNW of Batac City (pop: 53,500) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 100 km (62 mi) N of Vigan (pop: 48,500) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 172 km (107 mi) WNW of Tuguegarao City (pop: 115,100) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 435 km (270 mi) N of Manila (pop: 1,600,000) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby
Weather at epicenter at time of quake	Few Clouds 25.8°C (78 F), humidity: 81%, wind: 4 m/s (7 kts) from ENE
Estimated seismic energy released	1.4 x 10¹² joules (392 megawatt hours, equivalent to 338 tons of TNT) \| about seismic energy

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Data for the same earthquake reported by different agencies

Info: The more agencies report about the same quake and post similar data, the more confidence you can have in the data. It takes normally up to a few hours until earthquake parameters are calculated with near-optimum precision.

Mag.	Depth	Location	Source
4.9	26 km	22 Km W of Davila, Philippines	USGS
4.9	26 km	Luzon, Philippines	RaspberryShake
4.9	20 km	LUZON, PHILIPPINES	EMSC
4.9	19 km	Luzon, Philippines	GFZ
4.9	10 km	Luzon, Philippines	IRIS
4.9	4 km	Philippines: 042 Km N 87° W of Burgos (Ilocos Norte)	PHIVOLCS
5.0	10 km	Luzon, Philippines	GeoAu

Most recent quakes Top 20 past 24 hrs Quakes in Philippines

Seismograms

Seismic station: Taitung (TWGB/TW network) | Distance from quake: 489 km / 304 mi | Show on map | Station Info

Seismic station Taitung: vertical movement plot around time of quake (source: IRIS/BUD)

Seismogram (vertical component) around time of quake. Thin dotted red line indicates time of quake. Seismic waves arrive some time later, depending on distance. Bandpass filter applied: 0.2-10.0 Hz. Source: IRIS Buffer of Uniform Data (BUD) webtool

User reports for this quake (6)

User reports estimate the perceived ground shaking intensity according to the MMI (Modified Mercalli Intensity) scale.

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Translate

Davila, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos (24.8 km E of epicenter) [Map] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / single lateral shake / 2-5 s : Moderate shaking of the ground (reported through our app)

Laoag, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos (39.1 km SE of epicenter) [Map] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / both vertical and horizontal swinging / 20-30 s

Digos city (1413.2 km SSE of epicenter) [Map] / not felt

Laoag, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos (37.2 km SE of epicenter) [Map] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 15-20 s : It did felt swinging and shaking. Liquids in a jar are swaying.

Batac / Weak shaking (MMI III)

Makati city / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 2-5 s : Slight

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